Energetic, resolutely modern, as comfortable with technology as with theology, and deeply cosmopolitan, Patriarch Pizzaballa shares Pope Francis’ intention to restore Jerusalem to its former glory.

A journalist in Israel, dressed as a priest, was spat on by ultra-orthodox Jewish extremists. Attacks against Christian groups in the region are increasing over recent years.

The Notre Dame Folk Choir was like a family I did not want to leave behind.

Hundreds of thousands of Israelis have been coming out into the streets for the past three months in escalating pro-democracy protests against the most politically and religiously extreme right-wing government Israel has ever had.

In a statement condemning the attack against a Christian site—the fifth in Jerusalem in five weeks—the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land said it was following the incident “with concern."

The latest boutique hotel to open its doors in Bethlehem’s Old City, just minutes away from Manger Square, is the Morcos Nassar Palace, which doubles as a humanitarian project unique in Palestine and possibly in the Arab world.